No. 3| June 2017 Dear Colleagues and Friends, On June 15, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, a majority of the world's nations resumed negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. After a first round of talks in March and a draft text presented in May, many countries and observers are confident that agreement on a treaty can be reached before the final negotiating day on July 7. Considerable work remains to be done during and after these negotiations. While the first draft offers a good foundation, there is room for improvement. Consultations will revolve around bolstering the treaty's human security dimensions, including human rights and environmental law, which would be a breakaway from the narrow national security framing of traditional nuclear arms control. Yet all of these steps into the right direction will only make a difference, if international efforts to stigmatize and prohibit these weapons will indeed affect nuclear weapons states and their allies. They have not yet participated in the ban treaty process and the final treaty should offer them a pathway to engage with and eventually join the agreement. FES New York wants to add to this process: We just published a paper that analyzes the draft treaty from a human security perspective(see below). And on June 21, we will co-sponsor a side event at the UN to further the discussion on positive obligations in the nuclear weapons ban treaty. With kind regards, Bettina Luise Rürup Executive Director Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung- New York Office